I have repeatedly told you, friends, about the soccer career of Honored Master of Sports Leonid Buryak, about his brilliant achievements. And what was his path to big soccer? I think it will be interesting.
Lyonya, a 10-year-old from Odessa, started his way into big soccer at the Torpedo children's soccer school at the Prodmash stadium. His first was the famous soccer player Valentin Blinder. At the age of 15, the capable young man was invited to the duplicate squad of "Chernomorets". How did he end up in this team, for which he later successfully played for five years? Here is what Buryak himself said about it.
- All Odessa - both adults and boys - loved Chernomorets very much. I saved on school lunches, collecting money for a ticket to a game of the team. I knew the names of all the players who played in the "sailors". But in my dreams there was not even a thought that I could ever be in "Chernomorets". I continued to train and play for Torpedo.
But the day came, which played a significant, if not decisive, role in my soccer destiny. "Torpedo" in the championship of Odessa among juniors met with "Chernomorets". We played at the stadium of the plant "Prodmash". I felt that I was doing well in the game. It lifted my spirits. And it is of great importance for a soccer player. If the game doesn`t go well, you can cry. The game is going well - everything sings inside.
In the match against Chernomorets I wanted to play as efficiently as possible, I wanted to score at least one goal. And I felt - I will score! But to do that I had to break through the defenders: I didn`t have enough strength to score with a long-range shot. I had to use clever feints, clearly interact with my teammates.
I was able to do it. And here I scored the first goal, then the second, third ... We won the match, and when, excited and cheerful, changed clothes in a small room, I heard: "Buryak, out." On a bench near the field, I saw Matvei Cherkassky - a man who knows the whole sports Odessa. Before he played in "Chernomorets", and now he was one of its mentors.
- Tell me something, - he said, smiling, - you just tell me the truth: do you always score so much?
I shrugged.
- All right. And if we take you to Chernomorets, will you score so much? You see, we really need goals.
From confusion I didn't know what to answer. Cherkassky got up, came up to me and, putting his hand on my shoulder, said:
- If you are serious, then come to the training of our understudies. Let's see what you can do. How old are you?
- I'll be fifteen.
- Yeah, that's not much. All right, let's see!
I don't know if I've ever been happier than I was at that moment.
In 1973, 19-year-old Buriak became a player of Dynamo Kyiv. In the club from the banks of the Dnieper, Leonid achieved brilliant success. He became a five-time champion of the former USSR, four times became a silver and once a bronze medalist of the national championship, five times won the USSR Cup with his Dynamo partners.
On May 14, 1975 Dynamo, having defeated Hungarian Ferencvaros (3:0) in Basel in the final of the Cup Winners' Cup, became the owner of the prestigious European trophy. And in the fall of the same year, defeating Bayern Munich (1:0) and Kiev (2:0), won the UEFA Super Cup.
Buryak is also a bronze medalist of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Honored Master of Sports, Honored Coach of Ukraine, in 1994 and 1995 was recognized as the best coach of independent Ukraine. Leonid Iosifovich coached both Dynamo and the national team of Ukraine.
He is also a grandfather of five grandchildren, a wonderful husband, the author of two popular books - "Hot spots of the field" and "I lived in a happy soccer time".
Oleksandr LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua